Some time ago, we changed the hardware of our VM server. We replaced the RAID controller with an Adaptec 6805 because the old controller had some problems. The server run with ESXi 5.1.

The problem with our Adaptec controller was that ESXi didn't support it out-of-the-box. It was supported in general but the driver was not included. We thought that the new ESXi 6 could contain the driver, but it didn't. So we had to create our own ESXi image with the Adaptec driver.

We thought it shouldn't be a problem because there was much documentation about custom images:

https://blogs.vmware.com/vsphere/2012/04/using-the-vsphere-esxi-image-builder-cli.html
http://www.virten.net/2015/03/esxi-6-0-image-for-intel-nuc/
(DE) https://www.thomas- krenn.com/de/wiki/Individuelles_ESXi_5....

Some problems:

• We tried to create an image for version 6
• We used the free version of ESXi with all its limitations

A problem was that the documentation references an "offline software depot". You can download the offline depot for the paid version but it's not available for the free version - not as simple download. No offline deplot means no custom image - right? Not right, because it's also possible to use an online depot.

The problem was that the documentation didn't contain a full description. We found some hints in different blogs but no complete description.

Here are the steps how we created our custom ESXi 6 image with Adaptec 6805 driver:

Downloads

• ESXi

  https://my.vmware.com/en/group/vmware/evalcenter?p=free-esxi6

• PowerCLI 6

  https://my.vmware.com/group/vmware/get-download?downloadGroup=PCLI600R1

• Adaptec driver

  http://partnerweb.vmware.com/comp_guide2/detail.php?deviceCategory=io&productid=19667

Useful PowerCLI Documentation:
https://pubs.vmware.com/vsphere-55/index.jsp#...ve-EsxSoftwarePackage.html

Image creation

• Install PowerCLI 6 (and all required dependencies)
• Unzip the Adaptec driver to e.g. C:\temp\VMServer6\
• Run PowerCLI as Administrator (sometimes, first launch of PowerCLI isn't working - simply close/run again)
• Execute following commands
  # Preconfigure
  Set-ExecutionPolicy RemoteSigned
  cd c:\temp\VMServer6\

  # Use online depot
  Add-EsxSoftwareDepot https://hostupdate.vmware.com/software/VUM/PRODUCTION/main/vmw-depot-index.xml
  # Add offline bundle for adaptec driver
  Add-EsxSoftwareDepot aacraid-6.0.6.2.1.41024-offline_bundle-2915492.zip

  # Check added depots
  $DefaultSoftwareDepots

  # Lists all ESXi-6.* profiles
  Get-EsxImageProfile -Name "ESXi-6.*"

  # Sets the base profile
  New-EsxImageProfile -CloneProfile "ESXi-6.0.0-20160104001-standard" -name "ESXi-6.0.0-20160104001-standard-Adaptec" -Vendor "rjahn@SIB" -AcceptanceLevel "CommunitySupported"

  # Lists all included drivers
  Get-EsxSoftwarePackage -Name "*aacraid*"

  # Adds adaptec driver from offline bundle
  Add-EsxSoftwarePackage -ImageProfile "ESXi-6.0.0-20160104001-standard-Adaptec" -SoftwarePackage scsi-aacraid

  # Creates boot image
  Export-ESXImageProfile -ImageProfile "ESXi-6.0.0-20160104001-standard-Adaptec" -ExportToISO -filepath C:\temp\VMServer6\build\ESXi-6.0.0-20160104001-standard-Adaptec.iso

  # Creates Bundle
  Export-ESXImageProfile -ImageProfile "ESXi-6.0.0-20160104001-standard-Adaptec" -ExportToBundle -filepath C:\temp\VMServer6\build\ESXi-6.0.0-20160104001-standard-Adaptec.zip

Version numbers may be different, but the procedure should work for you as well. The online depot:
https://hostupdate.vmware.com/software/VUM/PRODUCTION/main/vmw-depot-index.xml

was the most important thing. All other steps can be found in the standard documentation.